BRICK, N.J. — A 6-year-old girl is recovering after a painful run-in with a rare invasive jellyfish while playing in the Metedeconk River in Ocean County, New Jersey.
Amelia was in the water when she was suddenly hit with severe pain, her mother, Julianne Colvin, said.
“She just started screaming. She was grabbing her chest,” Colvin recalled.
Experts say the girl’s symptoms are consistent with a sting from a clinging jellyfish, a species known for causing pain that intensifies over time. Dr. Paul Bologna of Montclair State University, who has researched the species for years, said its sting behaves differently from that of more common jellyfish.
“With other jellyfish, the pain starts, and then subsides. With this one, the pain just keeps building and building and building,” Bologna said.
Clinging jellyfish were first documented in New Jersey in 2016. Native to the Pacific coast, they are considered invasive in the area. The creatures are small — roughly the size of a quarter — and often conceal themselves in algae, making them hard to spot.
Amelia endured days of worsening pain, with neither her parents nor medical personnel initially able to determine the cause. Colvin said she questioned whether the condition had been properly identified.
“Am I misdiagnosing her? Was it a jellyfish? The pain just got worse even with treatment,” she said.
After conducting her own research, Colvin contacted Bologna, who identified the likely source of the injury.
Researchers at Montclair State University are studying the jellyfish’s life cycle to better understand how they reproduce and how to eliminate them.
For now, experts say there is some reassurance. Clinging jellyfish are sensitive to higher temperatures and tend to die off as waters warm during the season.
Amelia has since recovered from the ordeal.
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